School of Communication (SCOM) Arrowhead team Directors Tatiana Garcia, Maggie Metz,
and Team Captain Tanner Hirten, alongside their team, earned the “Best Research” award at the
American Advertising Federation (AAF) District 4 Competition in Orlando, FL, for their
campaign for sponsoring client, the National Football League (NFL).
At the April 11-12 competition, the team received the highest-scoring Plans Book in the district,
recognizing excellence in data and strategic development for their campaign themed, “Embrace
the Play.”
Leadership played a major role in maintaining consistency within their research. Hirten and the
strategy team ensured every creative decision was grounded in research.
“Our team captain, Tanner, did a fantastic job at keeping our strategy and campaign decisions
rooted in research. We had data to back all our choices, and I think that attention to detail set us
apart in the competition,” Maggie Metz said.
The team’s success came from uncovering a gap between the NFL’s community efforts and
public awareness of those initiatives. “Our insights were led by a deep look at the NFL’s current
social work landscape and how audiences view it,” Tanner Hirten said. “We found that there
was a dissonance between the work that was being done and the awareness people had of that
work. So, we used that insight to fuel the development of a campaign centered around building
awareness of the NFL’s social impact.”
The Arrowhead team dedicated the fall semester to research before moving into the creative side
of the project. “We built a full one-year advertising campaign from the bottom to the top with a
real client. Through this, I was exposed to every step of creating something and executing the
media planning,” Metz said.
The team used a structured research model with groups focused on surveys, interviews,
secondary research, and non-traditional field research. Qualtrics surveys using Boolean logic
helped tailor questions to specific audience groups. “We wanted to understand all the audiences
separately before we evaluated how to create the campaign to target them all at the same time,”
Garcia said.
Hirten also credited coursework within the College of Communication and Information for
helping prepare the team. “Last fall, I took a class titled Communication Research Methods
taught by Dr. Yin Yang. This helped me understand what types of research are possible and
crucially what one can learn from all of them.”Hirten said previous experiences with Arrowhead helped shape his leadership decisions. “This is
my third year with Arrowhead, so I was intimately familiar with the structure and timeline for
the team,” Hirten said. “This helped me make decisions that set teams up for success and remain
goal-oriented.”
He added that early secondary research was important because, “The NFL was vague about who
we were meant to target,” which allowed the team to identify the audience best served by the
campaign before launching surveys and interviews.
Arrowhead faculty adviser, Dr. Kelly Kelly said, “I’m incredibly proud of this team’s collective
effort and the lead-by-example approach of its leaders. This includes the creative team who
produced every original campaign asset from initial design to production in the spring.”
Winning “Best Research” shows the months of hard work and the value of a strong strategic
foundation. The achievement highlights how CCI students are turning what they learn in the
classroom into real world success, the strength of their skills, and the impact of their work
beyond campus.
Arrowhead Team Members: Scout Belanger, Cali Berenis, Spencer Brenner, Julia Clifford,
Cameron Colabella, Elizabeth D’Amico, Morgan Donnellan, Tatiana Garcia, Emma Green,
Tanner Hirten, Jade Lichtenstein, Mokena Lipinski, Christopher Lopez, Maggie Metz, Natalie
Mieses, Lexi Naperala, Megan Olivero, Sophia Parish, Harmony Pham, Marissa Rouse, Colton
Schneider, Micaela Socha, Alexandria Truex, Katherine Waryold.
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Kelly Kelly
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